


Love Language: Gift Giving and, Apparently, Fashion

by fracnkie



Series: MCU (Mechanisms Cinematic Universe) [1]
Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Found Family, Gen, Housemates, Jonny is a tailor in all my AUs and you can't stop me, Roommates, The Toy Soldier Goes Dress Shopping, and I will fight just about anyone on that fact, you don't have to be a girl or nb to wear a dress
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:14:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24872884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fracnkie/pseuds/fracnkie
Summary: The Toy Soldier is often the one to go shopping for the rest of the group. It also often comes back with things that are not on its list such as woodworking tools, fancy uniforms, and, this time, dresses.
Relationships: The Toy Soldier & The Mechanisms
Series: MCU (Mechanisms Cinematic Universe) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1797709
Comments: 20
Kudos: 177





	Love Language: Gift Giving and, Apparently, Fashion

**Author's Note:**

> Important Notes:  
> \- Read the series notes for power sets and about Aurora  
> \- Ivy and Raph know each other's identities  
> \- Everyone pretty much knows TS is the same as the Toy Soldier but nobody says anything about it because they think it'll reveal their identity  
> \- Jonny and Nastya know each other's identities  
> \- A few characters are... I want to say "coded" for various disorders as mostly a way for me to project so uh have fun with my brain

The Toy Soldier appears in the Labyrinth Town Center Mall down an empty hallway that leads to the employee corridors. It has a reusable bag tucked under its arm and a comprehensive list in its pocket. A list it made for itself this time in an attempt to not get side-tracked by woodworking tools and pet supplies. That shouldn’t be a problem, though, because this time it has a plan! Go into the dress shop, buy formal dresses for… it counts on its fingers again… all five who are willing to wear one, and then go bother Jonny to get all the measurements that it’s pretty sure he has written down somewhere worked into the dresses. 

It marches to the dress shop, all smiles as it catalogues what dresses everyone will want. The dress shop itself is brightly lit in white light, neutral tones washed over the walls to make the dresses pop, as well as the sparse racks of jewelry and other accessories. Ignoring all the shiny things that look so very splendid, it heads right to the dresses.

Ivy likes patterns. She also likes the color red, which the Toy Soldier thinks is just splendid. The color red is such a vibrant, lovely color. It should get a black and red dress for Ivy, for contrast! But, no, Ivy likes patterns that are somewhat busy but very neat to stare at for ages, tracking where one flower ends and the other begins. Ivy also tends to wear pleated skirts when she wears one. Ivy’s favorite is that lovely pleated skirt with the dark patterns.

Oh, that dress on the display looks just lovely! The Toy Soldier thinks it’ll do nicely. A dress with a black top cut off with a shiny, golden-looking belt. The skirt is pleated and goes down to the knees and the sleeves are a very nice lacey thing. There’s a bright, embroidered floral pattern on the skirt that pops so wonderfully. And so it drapes a dress it thinks is pretty close to Ivy’s size over its arm and moves on.

Well now its mind is very set on the black-red color scheme it likes so much. It’s not getting a dress for itself, though. It doesn’t like wearing dresses much for all it’s worth. They look nice and all but they’re not really its style. But who of the five likes the red-black combination as much as the Toy Soldier does? …Jonny! 

It sort of ruins the surprise for Jonny to bring his dress in for alterations but it surmises that it’ll still be somewhat of a surprise when it asks for Jonny to fit it to his own measurements. He doesn’t wear dresses too often, says they’re not practical, but he doesn’t begrudge them at all. Nastya showed the Toy Soldier some pictures from a benefit dinner for the doctor of Jonny wearing a very nice green dress while standing beside Nastya, who wore her own dress with one arm slung around Jonny’s shoulder. 

It thinks red and black would look very nice on Jonny, actually, but that’s a little harder to find the right stuff for. Jonny doesn’t like lace, says it’s itchy. So are sequins. Right, so something without lace or sequins or anything that could be considered “itchy.” It doesn’t know what itchy is but it guesses it’s the kind of stuff that it can easily splinter on so it understands the frustration to a point.

That dress looks perfect! A one-shoulder dress that cinches at the waist and unfurls into a long skirt that would probably drag against the floor slightly when Jonny wears it. He could fix that if he wants, it supposes. It’s mostly black, fading into a lovely, bright red as it goes down, starting just above the knee. There’s rhinestones on it at the shoulder and opposite hip, forming a sort of star at each point. It grabs this dress too, draping it over its arm on top of the dress for Ivy.

Raphaella needs an open back dress to manifest her wings at the drop of a hat. The Toy Soldier still thinks it’s a bit silly that Raph feels the need to manifest physical wings when she can fly just fine without them. Then again, it can’t exactly fault her for the aesthetic charm. Open-backed it is, then, despite its grievances. It also thinks Raph would look just lovely in blue. She very much doesn’t wear it enough, despite telling Ivy many times that she thinks she looks great in blue.

It spots an off-the-shoulder blue dress in the corner along the back wall. The top is darker than the skirt, made of what it thinks is velvet. It goes into a layered skirt at the waist, tied off with a bow of shiny, medium blue. There’s two layers of blue tulle on top of a black skirt, all of which puff out perfectly. It has an open shoulder area as well! Perfect for manifesting wings in case of a crisis. Though, the Toy Soldier can only think of so many crises that would make it so Raphaella can’t change into her proper costume. It’s the thought that counts, it guesses, as it shrugs and piles that dress on top of the others. 

Three down, two to go. These ones are a little harder, at that. Tim wears dresses only slightly more often than Jonny, preferring a simple skirt to a full dress any day of the week. But the point of this is to get dresses, not just skirts, so it locks its mind on dresses. What colors does Tim like, anyway? He’s in an awful habit of wearing musty browns and just about nothing else. Do they even make brown formal dresses? It really hopes not, it does not think those would look incredible. They certainly don’t have any in this shop. Then what about green? Tim’s goggles are green. The only color in his whole costume that’s not brown or gold or some other incredibly neutral color. Even Jonny once commented something along the lines of “Gunpowder! Can see 50 miles away perfectly but can’t find a costume that has more than one color in it.” The Toy Soldier quite agrees with the ridiculousness of it.

The dress it ends up finding it actually quite simple. It’s a one-toned dress, but Tim is a fan of accessories so it doesn’t think that’s too much of a flaw. The fabric is slick and sort of shiny in a very nice way. It doesn’t have sleeves and has a shiny belt of rhinestones that sort of looks like the Toy Soldier’s own studded belt. The skirt is puffy like a ball gown, barely brushing against the ground. It thinks it’s just what Tim would buy for himself, which makes it perfect despite the lack of multiple colors or tones.

And lastly is Nastya, who at least wears some color, unlike Tim. Well, first course of business is that it needs to have sleeves. Nastya gets cold so easily as it is, removing sleeves from the equation seems detrimental unless it wants her to throw a heavy black coat over the whole getup, which it doesn’t. She also hates lace just as much as Jonny does, though lace sleeves seem redundant in this case.

It looks for a long time, furrowing its brow as it goes through rack after rack, shooing away any employee that asks if it needs help. Finally, finally it finds something. A light pink dress made of light fabric that is practically made of folds. It has a shiny, silken belt with stars along it and a skirt that flies just above the floor. The sleeves are slightly puffy and long, ending in a tight sleeve around the wrist made of the same shiny fabric as the belt. Its eyes widen as it grabs it, a smile bright on its face that it finally found something that works.

It quickly rushes to the dressing rooms and asks for one for all the dresses it has. The attending clerk casts an odd eye at the Toy Soldier but gives a curt nod, handing it a plastic door marker with a large, bold 5 on it and letting it pick its own dressing room. Of course, it’s not in there to dress, but there aren’t any cameras to witness it disappear from the dressing room and reappear in the back room of the alterations shop.

It swings open the back room door with a flourish, much to the surprise of Jonny who jumps a good three inches and swivels his head around to meet it. It smiles brightly as Jonny’s surprise melts into an annoyed glare.

“What the shit are you doing here?” he asks, letting his hands rest on the desk in front of him. “You’re going to give me a heart attack one of these days.”

“Another one?” it teases, striding forward to his station.

“You’re not funny,” he says, joking. “What do you want?”

“Can you make some alterations to these dresses and also remove the security tags?” it asks, showing him the dresses in its arms. 

“Don’t tell me you stole those,” he says, a smirk pulling at his lips.

“What do you want me to say then?” 

“Nothing, nothing. What alterations do you need made? Did you even try them on? It might fit you without the changes.”

“Oh, they’re not for me,” it says, laying them down on the table. It points to each as it starts listing off. “This one is for Ivy, this one for Tim, Nastya, Raphaella, and this last one is for you!”

“For me?” Jonny looks the dress up and down. “You stole a dress for me?”

“You wouldn’t have done it,” it shrugs, smiling brightly still. “Do you not like it?”

“No, I…” he looks it over again, smiling curling onto his face. “It’s a very nice dress, TS. Thanks, I guess.”

“No thanks needed!” it exclaims. “Just do the alterations for everyone's measurements and it’ll all be perfect!”

Jonny sighs and crinkles his nose. He quickly looks around for anyone watching, mostly for the show of it, before pulling out a small, cluttered notebook, and flipping to the first page. The inside of the cover is just as cluttered as the rest of the notebook but highlighted in bright yellow are the complete measurements for everyone in the house.

“Tell anyone that I have these and I will throw you into a wood chipper,” he says, glaring up at the Toy Soldier.

“But everyone already knows you have these,” it says.

“Please don’t make me confront reality right now, and scram so I can make the alterations.”

“Yes, sir!”

* * *

It takes two weeks before the alterations are done, which is actually rather fast with how Jonny definitely has more important things to do, like the alterations jobs for his actual customers. When TS pops in to get them Jonny’s own dress is missing, but that’s fine because Jonny has a bright smile on his face as he hands them over.

“All done and accounted for,” Jonny says, hooking the dry cleaning bags over the Toy Soldier’s finger. “Any and all security tags have been removed as well.”

“Thank you, Jonny!” it cheers, its smile crinkling up to its eyes in its flesh form. “Do you think the others will like their dresses? Do you like yours?”

Jonny gives a short chuckle, rolling his eyes. Really doesn’t give it a lot of confidence until he smiles fondly.

“I know at least Nastya will love it,” he says. “And I do like mine, TS. Plus, with my alterations everyone will think them perfect!”

“If you say so,” the Toy Soldier says, nodding.

“Alright, go before I make you pay for it,” he says, suddenly glaring.

“Right-o, sir!” It salutes before marching off with the bags in hand, quickly disappearing down an empty corridor so as not to risk being recognized by the people it stole the dresses from.

Luckily, it appears in its room, which houses both Raphaella and Ivy. Well, currently only Ivy, who is lying on her bed with a book covering her face. She looks almost frozen save for the occasional page flip as the Toy Soldier silently arranges the dresses on its bed. When it’s done, it looks to Ivy, who is still reading. Normally it wouldn’t disturb her - she doesn’t like being bothered while reading - but this is an exception. So, with four dresses in front of it, it picks up the pretty patterned one and strides over to Ivy.

“Madam Alexandria,” it announces from where it stands at the end of her bed, “I have a gift for you.”

It takes a second before Ivy puts her book down, reaching over next to her where a loose receipt sits waiting to be a makeshift bookmark. She shoves it in and sets the book down with a sigh, pushing herself into a sitting position with her legs crossed over one another. Just as she’s about to say something, probably erring on the annoyed side, her eyes land on the dress that the Toy Soldier holds out in front of it, the light of the bedroom glaring off of the plastic cover.

“What is this?” she asks, blinking slowly in a way that reminds the Toy Soldier of a cat.

“It’s a dress!” it says, smiling wider as it gestures forward with the garment bag. “Do you like it?”

“Well, I,” she stops and looks at the dress over again, eyes scanning over every seam and inch. “Is that fitted to my measurements already?”

“I had Jonny do it,” it says, nodding.

She pauses, processing what the Toy Soldier says. Eventually, she holds out her hands and does a small, grabby motion. It smiles fondly as it brings the garment bag into her reach, letting her set it in her lap to look over. Her finger traces the plastic for only a second before cringing away and going for the zipper of the bag. She quickly rids it of the plastic and TS takes the bag into hand to put some of its own, more expensive uniforms into. Ivy traces a hand down the velvet top, smiling at the feeling of the fabric, and then running a hand against the soft skirt.

“It’s lovely, TS,” she says in a slightly monotone voice. She looks up then and at the bed where the rest of the dresses are laid out. “Which one is yours?”

“I didn’t get one for myself, ma’am,” it says.

“Why not? You seem to like skirts just fine,” she says, tilting her head.

“I don’t like dresses as much as I like skirts,” it tells her, drifting back to the dresses. “Do you know when Miss Raphaella will be back?”

“Her shift doesn’t end until five in the evening,” Ivy says, sliding off of the bed. “Do you want to surprise her with it? I can help you hide it.”

“No, it’s fine,” it says, grabbing onto Tim’s dress. He should be home by now. “If she does come in when I’m not looking, would you mind informing me? I would still like to see her receive the gift.”

Ivy nods. The Toy Soldier gives a salute and marches out the door.

Its formal shoes click against the wood of the stares and likely alert the whole house to its presence, and then down the hall. Two of the three bedroom doors are open, the only one not being the one to the master bedroom where Jonny and Nastya live. It’s almost always closed. Tim and Brian’s, on the other hand, is wide open and it can hear both the sound of a guitar and the dull thud of drumsticks against an electric drum. Heading down the hallway, it looks inside, sunlight highlighting the two figures inside.

Brian and Tim have the smallest room, but despite the lack of space they both fit what they need inside. Those things being their beds, an electric drum kit, and a shared desk. A desk which Tim sits with his back to and a guitar in his lap while Brian sits behind the drumset. Both of them have headphones on their ears that trail to the laptop the drums are plugged in to. Once again something that the Toy Soldier isn’t very keen on interrupting, but it doesn’t exactly have to as it only has to spend a good thirty seconds standing in the door before Brian looks up and sees it. He shoves his headphones down to hang around his neck and sets his drumsticks down in his lap, drawing Tim’s attention due to the sudden lack of noise in his headphones.

“What do you need, TS?” Brian asks good naturedly.

“I have something for Tim,” it says, taking a step inside.

Tim furrows his brow and stands, slipping his headphones off and setting them on the desk behind him. He rests the guitar against the chair and strides over to the Toy Soldier, his eyes immediately landing on the garment bag. The Toy Soldier pauses to let Tim look over it with his ever-scrutinizing eyes.

“I thought it looked a little plain for my own taste,” it explains as Tim takes it in hand and starts to work at the zipper, which gets caught at least three times. “I think you can accessorize with it, though. You tend to do that a lot.”

Tim lets the garment bag drop to the floor at his feet. The Toy Soldier quickly snatches it up and sets it on the desk chair as Tim lets the skirt flow outward. Brian looks over it too, interested from where he sits still with his back to the window. 

“It’s perfect!” he exclaims, a wild smile on his face that the Toy Soldier easily mirrors. He looks over at the sides and the seems quickly. “Did you already get alterations on it?”

“Yes, sir,” it says.

“Come ‘ere,” he says in a gruff, fond tone.

The Toy Soldier takes a step forward only to be put into a headlock, the dress draped over in front of it. Tim knocks its hat off and ruffles its hair, getting his fingers caught in the strands well enough to pull its hair from its braid and frizz it like it just rubbed a balloon along its head. It fights him off quickly, grabbing its hat off the ground while smoothing its hair over with its other hand.

“Be nice,” Brian chastises half-heartedly. “It just got you a gift.”

“I don’t think I have a nice setting, Brian,” Tim jokes, walking over to the closet. “But, yes, thank you for the dress, TS.”

“It is not a problem, Tim!” it says, nodding. It turns to Brian, who is still content to watch from his seat. “I didn’t get you anything, Brian. Was I wrong to do so?”

“Oh, no,” Brian says, shaking his head. “I don’t really like dresses. Thank you, though.”

The Toy Soldier does a quick, formal bow at the hip and retreats back downstairs to wait for Nastya and Raphaella to get home. In the meantime, it slinks into the garage and opens the doors to the fresh spring air. It settles down inside on a foldable lawn chair with its legs perfectly set while it pulls out its ever-growing collection of wooden animal skulls as well as the rest of its woodworking tools. Might as well be productive as it waits.

Raphaella is the first to get home at five in the evening. She walks around the bend and up the driveway with a skip in her step, still clad in her dental assistant scrubs that are a rather dull green that the Toy Soldier doesn’t find incredibly appealing. She does have a coat over it, though, which is a nice, warm brown which almost makes up for the dull green. As she approaches the house, she gives the Toy Soldier a curt wave and a bright smile that crinkles her eyes.

“Afternoon, TS!” she cheers, slowing her skipping stride as she reaches it. “What have you been doing today?”

“I’ve got you something, Miss Raphaella,” it says, setting the box aside to stand.

“Did you?” she tilts her head comically to the side. 

“Please do follow me,” it instructs, immediately breaking off into a march back into the house.

It feels the cold air hit as it opens the garage door back into the house and doesn’t particularly like how it feels on its currently fleshy body. It really prefers the wooden version but people find that off-putting. It clicks the buttons for the garage doors to close behind it as it and Raphaella take the short walk between the garage and the shared bedroom.

As they enter, Ivy is no longer reading her book. Instead, she’s sitting at her bed and worrying at the skirt of her new dress with her fingers. She’s wearing it now, though, and it seems that Jonny did just perfectly with the alterations. The Toy Soldier finds joy in this but quickly pushes it aside to grab the dark blue dress in its perfectly set garment bag. It immediately spins around to show Raph, who backs up as she had been following much too close behind.

“It has an open back,” the Toy Soldier says as Raph takes the dress in hand. “And the velvet top matches Miss Ivy’s.”

“Oh it’s lovely!” Raph exclaims. “I want to dance in this immediately! Ivy!” She spins around and locks eyes with Ivy, who perks up. “We should dance in these! It’ll be fun! Please?”

“I don’t see why not,” Ivy says. “Toy Soldier, would you like to dance with us?”

“Oh, yes please!” it exclaims. “Let me find one of my best uniforms while you change!”

Raphaella claps quickly, face scrunching up in excitement as she runs to her dresser to change.

The three spend quite a while dancing, skirts flying out from all three of them as the Toy Soldier did indeed pick one of the skirts this time around. It still likes them much better than it likes wearing dresses. Plus, this one has these wonderful ruffles. It also lets its hair out so both its hair and Raphaella’s flow out when they spin to the wonderfully upbeat music that Ivy picks out. The Toy Soldier thinks that Brian and Tim probably hear the three of them quite loudly, but if they really care too much they can turn up their headphones. It doesn’t think they will, though, so it just enjoys spinning and dancing and jumping around with Raphaella while Ivy does simpler dance moves that require less energy, as she doesn’t have the same excitable nature as the Toy Soldier or Raphaella. Raphaella even flies up with the Toy Soldier at some point, hands on its hips to prevent it from falling to the ground or pulling awkwardly at its shoulders.

Eventually, though, their dance is ended by a knock in the door. Raphaella jumps at this, quickly depositing the Toy Soldier on the ground and folding her wings out of existence once again. Ivy turns the music down but keeps it running, providing a lovely, upbeat background as the Toy Soldier goes to answer the door.

Standing there is Nastya, looking uncomfortable in the cold air downstairs. She’s pulling in on herself, hands running against her arms in an attempt to warm herself up.

“Jonny said you had something for me,” she says in a gruff tone.

“I do!” it exclaims. “You should go upstairs, I’ll be right up after you!”

Nastya only nods, happy to feel the heating upstairs provides much better than the basement. Raphaella turns the music back up as the Toy Soldier gathers the last dress and flees from the room, closing the door behind it so Raph can continue her secret flight. It thinks it’s rather silly she hides her wings from everyone else, but it plays along with the charade nonetheless. 

It thinks of walking upstairs but at this rate Nastya has probably already closed her door to the rest of the house. So, instead, it goes from standing outside of its bedroom door to inside Nastya’s bedroom. It knows she doesn’t mind because she is sitting at her desk, waiting for it and staring where it usually appears. Jonny, though, doesn’t seem to expect it. The Toy Soldier doesn’t expect Jonny either and jumps almost as much as he does when he gives a yelp and falls backward onto his bed.

“Give a man a warning!” he yells, trying to compose himself.

“I am very sorry,” it says, checking over the garment bag once more. “I didn’t know you were in here either, d’Ville.”

“I thought it was obvious it was coming,” Aurora says in her staticky tone from the computer Nastya sits beside. 

“Piss off,” he spits, crinkling his nose up as he moves to sit on the bed with his back against the wall. “Just show her the dress already.”

“You’ve ruined the surprise!” it exclaims, pouting. “That’s very rude of you.”

“Apologies,” he says, definitely not sorry. “Come on then!”

“Fine,” it says, turning back to Nastya.

It displays the dress out to her and practically shoves it at her. She takes it in stride and also the dress, a fond smile on her face from the childish argument.

“You’re very thoughtful, you know that?” Nastya says, draping the dress over her arm.

“Do you like it?” it asks, eyes trained on the dress and not Nastya.

“Of course I like it, TS,” she chuckles.

The Toy Soldier smiles as Nastya steps forward and locks the Toy Soldier into a tight hug with one arm. It doesn’t return the hug, but smiles all the same knowing she understands that it won’t. When she pulls away, she’s still smiling. She quickly sets the dress over the back of the chair and turns back to the Toy Soldier.

“Let me fix your hair,” she says, nodding over to her bed. “It’s the least I can do.”

“The least you can do is kick me out,” it says.

Nastya chuckles. “Up on the bed before I do just that.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was really just an excuse for me to just play around in this AU for a bit. I know KersPastei is working on her own thing that I'm absolutely dying to read so look forward to that (if/when it comes out)! Find me @fracnkie or @byron-von-raum on tumblr!


End file.
